The Enforcers' Invasion
by Fiftydoorcars
Summary: Zack was just trying to survive until he grew old and died a natural death. Sadly, with him always pissing the Enforcers off, that's highly unlikely. However, when he finds a young woman bleeding and unconscious, his whole world changes. "How Long is Forever" based. Starfire doesn't go into the future, but still around that time. Enforcers Invade. Teen Titans beat and disbanded.


Zack was pissed to say the least. He _hated_ the Enforcers. They took everything from him; his home, his family, his lover, and his hope. The Enforcers took it all and buried it so deep into the Earth that they had no chance of ever returning.

The Enforcers were the ones who completely enslaved the Earth. They were big, nasty grunts that only listened to their leader. There were only a few who were out of the Enforcers control, such as the Justice League, their predecessors Young Justice, and others who's will to be free and to live the way they want. They were the only hope that we had to escape control of the Enforcers.

The only thing that brought a ghost of a smile to Zack's face was the fact that the famous Nightwing was fighting back in his area. Everytime he heard of Nightwing and his fight against the Enforcers, he silently wished he could join him. The only thing keeping him from actually fighting back was the fact that he was unable to. He had no powers or any skill. In all definition he was below average.

Sometimes, when he was feeling particularly ballsy, he'd help some others get them out of the Enforcers' crosshairs. Of course, then he'd be "_justifiably" _punished. He'd be taken to their base and thrown into a cell, where he would sit for a few days without food and hardly a swallow of the brown, murky water that they give him. Then, they'd drag him out, beat him, and then throw him back into the streets. He was lucky enough to not sustain any permanent damage while he was there, but he was always laying around healing for a few days wherever they had thrown him.

Luckily, today he had managed to avoid any of the Enforcers and was slowly limping to who knows where. This last beating was a particularly bad one. He had bruises everywhere, he had tears in his clothes, where constant beatings had torn them, his vision was tinted red and was blurry, and he was sure he had a few broken bones somewhere along his body, but he was so tired he didn't care.

He was heading to an abandoned hospital that he had spotted when they had dropped him off. It was the perfect image of Halloween Hospital. The windows were all chipped and cracked, and the walls were bruised and yellow/green from mold. The door was barely hanging on it's hinges, and were dented and twisted like something was desperately trying to get in or out.

As Zack walked up to the door, he grabbed a sturdy branch for protection, however slight, against any predators inside the hospital. He had learned over the years that any protection at all was better than none at all. As soon as he was comfortable with it, he took a deep breath and crawled through the hole where one bottom-corner of the door had been caved inwards, making it possible to crawl through, but difficult to crawl out without getting stabbed by the sharp edges.

The inside of the hospital was enough to make him want to be back on the outside. However, he knew that he had to continue forward if he wished to patch himself up. So, he reluctantly started into the big room that was the front lobby. It was obviously ransacked because of the trash thrown around and not a single morsel of _anything_ useful in the immediate area. The benches were all grungy⁽¹⁾ and thrown about. The tiled floor was covered in ankle deep water that came from a burst pipe that was still flowing. He would've been happy that he found water, but the water was dirtier than the water he was given in the Enforcers' hands.

The only thing that was promising was the flickering of lights throughout the hallways because, flickering lights mean there's electricity, and electricity meant backup generators somewhere.

After the Enforcers had taken control, all power throughout the city was cut off, plunging us into suffocating darkness. After a few days, people started trying to restart the power generators in the power station on the coast a few miles down. However, after the Enforcers caught wind of it, they struck, _hard. _They tortured the people and left them for dead. Needless to say, there were no attempts made after that.

While the Enforcers were ruthless, they were kind of dim. Unless given a direct order from their superiors, they just kind of wandered around. The only function they do without a direct order was keep the "order" and beat people that weren't even out of line.

If the hospital had backup generators, it meant that he could _build._ Building and inventing were the only things that kept him alive. Well, that, and the crudely built pump next to his heart.

After _they_ took everything, they pumped him full of bullets. He should be dead, but the man he grew to care for, until he passed away, was an old, _old_ healer from before they invaded. He knew things that the Enforcers thought they had eradicated. Old methods, medicines, and knowledge.

He had taught Zack anything from simple First Aid, to semi-minor surgery. Zack was the vessel to pass on the knowledge of the Old Days. Old Man, which Zack had called him, knew that his time was coming, and if he didn't pass it on, the knowledge would be lost forever. So he did, he passed on _everything_ to Zack.

And now, Zack was limping down a hallway, desperately trying to hold on to consciousness. His injuries were taking a toll on him, and if he didn't find any gauze to wrap his chest with, he would black out until who knows when, and then he'd be in _big_ trouble.

He had just passed room 302 when he found something promising. An unopened door, which normally meant one of two things. One: the room had yet to be looted, which was what he desperately hoped for. Or two: someone or some_thing_ was in there and wanted privacy, which Zack desperately hoped against.

He slowly walked up to the door, grabbed the doorknob, took a deep breath, and swung the door open brandishing his crude weapon.

What he witnessed was something he certainly did not expect.

On the middle of the floor lay someone who was badly wounded. There was a pool of blood slowly expanding underneath them. Their clothing was torn to shreds, and they were curled up into a ball.

_What the fuck? _he thought. _Who the fuck? This is just…. sick. Whoever did this needs to burn in the lowest pits of Tartarus._

His vision clearing, he slowly walked up to the person, hoping even if it wasn't probable that they were still at least somewhat alive. Then there was a chance he could heal them if they were alive. Even if they were an inch from Death, he could grab them and bring them back if he tried hard enough.

Zack kneeled next to the figure and put his fingers to their neck, looking for a pulse, praying he found one.

_Ba-dum…. Ba-dum….Ba-dum_

"_Thank everything pure of heart I found a pulse"_ he thought. He slowly turned the figure over to find a female. Zack immediately got to work on the gash across her midsection, focusing on the worst of her injuries. _Ok, good, it's not too shallow and it's not hitting any major organs._

He looked around, hoping to find anything to clean her wound, finding nothing.

Deciding it was better to use the water around them then let the wound get infected, he started cleaning it.

_Sorry about this Ma'am, _Zack thought, _This is gonna sting like Hades, but it's gotta be done._

Zack started looking in the cupboards for a cup or a bowl. Sadly, the only things he could find were small and useless, ranging from wire to debris.

After only a few minutes, Zack gave up his search and just took his shirt off and pushed it to her wound, staunching the flow of blood. Then, ripping off her sleeve of her long-sleeved shirt, he grabbed the wire and started stringing it together to make a fairly decent rope. He started feeding the wire through the sleeve making it at least a bit more comfortable for the woman.

Once he had finished stringing the wire, Zack gently wrapping the wire around the woman's torso, pulling it taut so it could hold the shirt in place.

After about 10 minutes checking to make sure that the wound was as properly set as he could get it, he started working on the numerous cuts and bruises along her arms and legs. He cleaned them with the water he had gone down to retrieve, he used an old shirt that was too cut up to be worn, and wrapped the larger cuts. Unfortunately, he had nothing with him to help patch up the smaller wounds unless he wanted to cut up his last and only shirt.

Finally after cleaning and wrapping the wounds, he started using a damp cloth, that was too small to effectively wrap a wound, to wash the woman's arms and legs to get rid of the dirt and grime that had collected on them.

As he reached to her face to clean it, her eyes flew open. She immediately tried to get up, but let out a weak cry and fell back down. She looked around wildly and when she caught sight of Zack, she stopped thrashing around.

Her body was rigid and her breath came in short, frantic bursts, showing that she was panicking.

"Ma'am," Zack's voice came out raspy from weeks of inuse⁽²⁾, "It's ok. I'm not going to hurt you. I'm a," he desperately tried to find something to call himself to calm her down, "friend, I guess."

She stared at his eyes as if she was staring right into his soul. He kept silent, willing her to believe him.

After a full minute, she finally spoke. "If you are a," she hesitated, "friend, then you'll tell me your name and tell me why you've trespassed on my home."

Zack was stunned. _Home? _he thought, _What is she talking about?_ "Um," he brilliantly started, "well, sorry for intruding, but I was trying to get to a place where I could sit down and catch my breath. The Enforcers let me out a few blocks from here. I was looking for any useful supplies when I noticed the closed door. I immediately thought of looting everything in here. When I opened the door though…" Zack stopped and glanced down at her wounds.

She noticed Zack looking and looked down herself. "Oh," she gasped. She seemed to be confused by the cuts, especially the large one on her stomach.

Zack looked around, trying to think of something to say. "I uh, wrapped them to the best of my ability with what I had at the moment. You should be healed in a few weeks if you take it easy and replace the bandages once a day."

After what seemed an eternity, which was actually just a few minutes, Zack started to get up and head for the door. "Well, I need to go find some supplies," he started to say, "and I need to go before the Enforcers catch up to me again. So, um, it was nice meeting you, and, yeah…...bye."

He slipped out of the room before she could think of a response and started down the hallway for the stairs, hoping there was something up on the fourth floor. Right as he made it to the stairs he heard a door opening down the left hallway and some voices that sounded extremely unpleasant.

"C'mon guys! We need to find this bitch before she gets away."

Zack's face paled. He had a good idea of who they were after.

"Hey, Terrance, think I can have _fun _with her tonight? After all, I'm the one she knocked out."

Immediately Zack's fear turned to rage. He knew exactly what the man meant by _fun. _The only problem was, with his body in as bad a shape as it was, he knew he wouldn't be able to take them.

_Okay, _Zack thought, _I could either run and hide so they don't find me, try and get the woman out of here unseen, or confront them and possibly get the shit beat out of me. If lucky, they won't kill me. If unlucky, well….. I'll be dead within minutes. _He looked down the hallway from where the voices were coming from. After a few seconds, he saw the first guy walk into view.

Obvious to say it, but he was huge. He stood at roughly 6' 7", had a shaved head, and shoulders that were bigger than me. He wore a camouflage skin tight T-shirt and baggy tan pants that covered bulging dark-toned muscles. His whole physique spoke of "weight-pumping maniac".

Zack didn't see who was with him because he had already fled down the hallway, running for the door that he had left the woman in.

When he reached the door, it was slowly opening with the woman stepping out.

"_Ma'am!" _He whispered loudly.

Her head whipped around and stared at him with a piercing gaze.

Zack winced. "I apologize Ma'am, but there are some men looking for you down the hall. I don't think they have good intentions toward you." Leave it to him to be blunt.

Her eyes widened, showing she was surprised. Her hand went towards her stomach tracing the wound.

"If you want," Zack said, "I can get you out of here and hide you until you're fully healed. If not, then the least I can do is help you get away from these guys."

She stared at him and hesitated before she nodded her head. Zack turned and started going the opposite direction of the voices. After a few steps, he heard her follow him. We wandered the hallways, searching for a way out.

"You said this was your home right?" Zack asked.

She nodded her head, while looking out of a window. She grabbed the sleeve of Zack's shirt and pointed out the window, down onto the ground below. "We may have trouble," she whispered.

Zack looked out the window, down at the Enforcers that were surrounding the building. His eyes widened as they took in the amount of Enforcers.

"There must be," Zack paused, too stupefied to speak for a moment, "a hundred, if not, three hundred Enforcers out there. If they're after the guys that are after you, good. If they're after us, we're fucked. Most likely though, they're just after me. I tend to piss them off more than what's healthy. If that's the case, I need to get out of here. You'd probably be better off splitting off from me once we get out."

Zack stared out of the window, contemplating what his choices were once he got the woman out of there. It surprised him when she spoke up.

"I can get us out of here," she said, "but I'll only be able to get us to the roof. After that, we'll have to find our way down." she paused and thought for a moment, "Our best bet I think would be the sewers. They're big enough to run in, and the Enforcers don't go down there. It's the perfect escape route."

Zack stared, dumbfounded. "How did you come up with that on the spot?" he asked, "And how would you get us to the roof? The guys that are after you are down the hall that way, and the other stairs have collapsed. Unless there's another stairway that I don't know about, we're trapped."

She looked around nervously. "Well… It's not exactly _normal_. I've had this ability since I was born. And after what those thugs did to me, I'm extremely weak. So the farthest I can get without fainting is about the roof."

Zack thought for a few seconds. _Ability? _he thought, _So she's a metahuman? I thought the Enforcers wiped all the ones that were here years ago._ "Alright," Zack started, "Let's go."

She put her hand on Zack'sshoulder and closed her eyes, concentrating. After a few tense seconds he was about to ask if everything was okay, when a dark energy started gathering around him. "_Azarath Metrion ZINTHOS"_

All of a sudden, Zack was encased in the dark energy. He should have felt terrified, but for some reason he felt almost… safe. Like nothing could harm him while he was near the energy.

He had closed my eyes and almost started to drift off, when as sudden as it started, the energy had dissipated.

Zack stayed standing there with his eyes closed, waiting until the feeling left him.

"Umm, are you ok? I'm sorry if that scared you any…." The woman attempted to console him. She sounded as if she hated consoling people, because she sounded really nervous and unsure of what to say.

Zack opened his eyes to see her violet orbs staring into his. He took a deep breath and smiled. "No, it's okay. That felt wonderful. What was that?" he asked hoping he could experience it again before we separated.

She looked confused and asked, "That didn't scare you or creep you out?"

Zack shook his head. "No. I loved that feeling. It felt like I was safe for the first time in, well, ever. It was the safest I've ever felt, even when I was adopted by the Old Man." He looked up and smiled at the sky, remembering the times that the Old Man had stayed up with him and consoled him when he had woken up from one of his usual nightmares.

Coming out of his reverie, Zach looked at the woman and shook his head. "Sorry about that. Just remembering something. Anyway, we got up here. Now how do we get down?" he asked.

She looked around and pointed to an old, rickety fire escape ladder that was dangerously leaning to one side. "Over there. We climb down and once we get to the ground, there's a manhole cover about fifteen feet away. Once we get into the sewers, we should be free."

Zack thought for a minute. "Um, if you could get us to the ceiling, why couldn't we just. umm, teleport, to the manhole cover?"

Her eyes narrowed and she glared at him. "Because up here, it's open. In the alley, it's about ten feet between buildings. I didn't want to risk 'teleporting' into a wall by accident. This isn't the easiest way to get to the sewers, but its the safest way to get away."

They looked at each other for a few moments before she looked away and started walking toward the ladder.

Zack sighed and said, "Hold on. At least let me go first. That way, if we run into any trouble at the bottom, you can just climb back up."

She turned at glared at him again. "Do you think I need your sympathy? I can go down first. It's not like I'm defenceless."

Zack rolled my eyes. "Of course not, but you have a large gash on your stomach and multiple cuts and bruises on your arms and legs." he stared at him with his eyebrow raised. "Am I correct?"

She glared at Zack, and in the distance he thought he heard a window explode. "Shut up. The only reason they were able to injure me was because my energy was spent when they found me."

Zack raised his hands and started walking to the ladder. "Alright, win. But I'm still going down first. Wait for about half a minute, then follow me down. Got it?"

She glared at him….again and nodded her head. "Fine. But _don't_ look up or I will make sure you fall to your death, _got it_?"

Zack smiled and chuckled. "Deal, now let's get going." He grabbed the ladder and swung over to start climbing down. After they got about 3 stories down, the building started shaking and they heard gunfire from inside. The floor below them blew out and took the ladder.

"SHIT" Zack yelled. "Climb up! Hurry! Before the ladder gives out!"

The woman climbed up the ladder faster than what Zack thought she was capable. Within minutes, they were safely at the top, panting from the exertion.

"You ok?" Zack asked.

She panted for a few moments before she said, "Yeah, I'm ok. You?"

"In one piece," Zack said. "_Now_ how do we get down?"

The woman sat down and started resting. "Unless you have something in that bag of yours, then we'll have to go down the stairs. And the Enforcers are _crawling_ all around down there."

Zack sat down next to her and looked up. "So, in other words, we're fucked huh?" he asked.

She looked at him and said, "Yeah, pretty much."

For about ten minutes, they sat there and thought about what to do next.

Zack looked at the woman and said, "Zack"

She looked up startled and looked at him. "Huh?"

"My name. It's Zack. I thought I'd let you know before our inevitable death."

The woman nodded. "Raven."

"Nice to meet you Raven." Zack said smiling.

"Nice to meet you too." Raven said. "So now that we know each other's names, shall we go down and try to get out of here?"

Zack looked over at the roof access door. "Ah, Hades. Why not?"

Raven looked at him startled. "Greek mythology?"

Zack looked at Raven, grinned, and said, "Yeah, the Old Man taught me about the myths and whatnot. Better to have Gods that seem to not care, than no Gods at all right?"

Raven smiled, "Yeah, I guess it is."

As they walked to the roof access door, the gunfire seemed to get louder and closer.

As Zack reached for the door, and explosion ripped it off the hinges and sent both the door and Zack towards the edge of the building.

"Zack!" Raven yelled as she ran towards the broken boy.

"Unh" Zack gasped. "Shit that hurt like Hades. You okay?"

Raven bent down and knelt next to him. "Yes, now shut up and don't overexert yourself. You're bleeding."

Zack looked up and saw close to twenty Enforcers walking onto the roof. He put his arm underneath him and struggled to get up. "Raven, get out of here. I'll distract them and you try to get around them to get away. I'm most likely dead anyway. The force from the explosion broke a few ribs and I think my stomach's been punctured, so like I said, I'm likely dead anyway. The last thing I want to do is help a beautiful girl out of a situation that seems to be worse than it actually is."

Raven looked at him for a minute and suddenly started lightly blushing. "I'm not going to leave you here to just die."

Zack looked at Raven and smiled. "Sorry, but you really don't have a choice here." He stood up and wobbled slightly. "Now get out of here. I've got a date with Death. Hey, Enforcers!" He yelled as he shoved Raven away. "Here I am assholes! Come and get me!"

Zack started running toward the Enforcers with a steel resolve. _The last thing I'm gonna do is give Raven enough time to get the Hades out of here._

As he got up to the Enforcers, he ducked under their first swing, jumped over their kick, and punched another in the throat. Then he spun and ran towards the opposite side of the roof.

_C'mon follow me, _Zack thought, _Follow me you fucks._

When he got to the edge of the roof he turned around and looked back. He was relieved when he noticed all of the Enforcers had followed him, leaving the door wide open to allow Raven to run.

Zack took one look over the edge of the building and one look back at the Enforcers before he smirked at their stupidity. All of them were running full sprint with no clue that they were all about to jump to their deaths. Right before the Enforcers got to him, Zack jumped to the side just in time to witness all of the Enforcers running off the edge of the building.

He had a moment of victory before a sense of dread rolled over him. He flew over the edge of the building with one of the Enforcers holding onto his shoe. _Of course_ Zack thought, _One moment of victory and then the next, shit hits the fan. Whatever, at least now Raven has a chance to escape._

As Zack plummeted, he closed his eyes and remembered all the good times he had in this life, and all the bad times. He opened them to see a figure jump off the edge of the building and plummeting after him.

He saw a flash of violet right before his entire being exploded into pain and he slipped into the clutches of Death.

**A/N: Okay then. This idea has been floating around in my head for a few months and I figure I'd at least get it down onto paper, err, the computer.**

**It's 11:18 at night, my left side is stabbing itself in pain and my sister is sitting and flirting with her boyfriend about 15 feet away on my dad's recliner. 'Tis a good night to write my ideas down.**

**So, this story will probably update once every month or so. I would like to say at least once a week, but that never happens with me. I'll try and keep it frequent though, so no worries!**

**I had this idea after re-watching the episode "How Long is Forever", and for some reason, a post-war setting settled in my head. So I'll hopefully keep this Fanfic sort of war-like. I know I'll get the Teen Titans together, but I do not know how that'll happen.**

**Starfire did not go into the future. After the Enforcers invaded, the Teen Titans were beat and they disbanded. I have a vague idea on what her role will be, but nothing is set in stone.**

**Raven is slightly different to better fit my OC's personality. She will be slightly more "outgoing" and more relaxed around Zack since he saved her twice already.**

**This story will most likely go into 1st person P.O.V since halfway through this chapter I started writing in 1st person. I had to go back and fix my mistake. It took me about an hour to reread and double check to make sure I got everything. I most likely missed one or two things so I apologize beforehand.**

**This is all Copy-and-Pasted so it will most likely be in a crappy format until I'm able to correct that mistake.**

**Anyway I must sleep for tomorrow, so I bid you adieu. (I have no idea how to spell that)**

**Fiftydoorcars**


End file.
